Donald has been analysing trends and policies related to poverty and low income for over four decades. In the 1980s he was a journalist, latterly on The Economist. In the 1990s, after a period at the OECD, he was an international policy consultant, and between 1998 and 2008 the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s Poverty Adviser. He played a central role in establishing the Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom (MIS), joining Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é’s Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) in 2008 to lead the MIS work. He was Director of the Centre from 2012 to 2022. Since retiring from Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é, he has been policy adviser to abrdn Financial Fairness Trust, which funds a range of research related to income, assets and spending. Donald’s work has been influential in establishing a living wage for the UK, in developing strategies to combat child poverty and fuel poverty, in providing an evidence base for a more generous legal aid means test, announced in 2022, and in other areas of policy and practice.
Among the research projects that Donald played a leading role in at CRSP, up to 2022, were:
- A Minimum Income Standard for the United Kingdom (on-going: Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
- The Cost of a Child (on-going: Child Poverty Action Group and Joseph Rowntree Foundation)
- Local child poverty indicators (on-going: End Child Poverty Coalition)
- Padley, M., Davis, A., Stone, J., Hirsch, D., Shepherd, C. and Blackwell, C. (2022) . York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
- Hirsch, D. (2022) More affordable justice: proposals to reform the legal aid means tests and implications for living standards Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é: Centre for Research in Social Policy
- Stone, J. and Hirsch, D. (2022) London: Marie Curie
- Hirsch, D. (2022) . Glasgow: Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland
- Hill, K., Webber, R. and Hirsch, D. (2021) . Edinburgh: abrdn Financial Fairness Trust
- Hirsch, D. and Lee, T. (2021) . London: Child Poverty Action Group
- Davis, A., Hirsch, D., Padley, M. and Shepherd, C. (2021) . York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
- Hirsch, D. (2021) . London: Child Poverty Action Group
- Hirsch, D. (2020) . London:Child Poverty Action Group
- Hill, K., Hirsch, D., Stone, J. and Webber, R. (2020) , Edinburgh, Standard Life Foundation.
- Hirsch, D. (2020) ‘After a Decade of Austerity, Does the UK Have an Income Safety Net Worth its Name?’ in J. Rees, M. Pomati and E. Heins (ed) . Bristol: Policy Press
- Davis, A., Hirsch, D., Padley, M. and Shepherd, C. (2020) York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
- Hill, K., Hirsch, D., and Davis, A. (2020) . Social Policy and Society, 1-16. Doi:10.1017/S1474746420000184
- Hirsch, D., Concialdi, P., Math, A., Padley, M., Pereira, E., Pereirinha, J., and Thornton, R. (2020) The Minimum Income Standard and equivalisation: Reassessing relative costs of singles and couples and of adults and children. Journal of Social Policy, 1-20. doi:
- Hirsch, D., Padley, M., Stone, J. and Valadez-Martinez, L. (2020) Social Indicators Research. The Low Income Gap: A New Indicator Based on a Minimum Income Standard.
- Davis, A., Hirsch, D. and Padley, M. (2018) ‘The Minimum Income Standard as a benchmark of a ‘participatory social minimum', Journal of Poverty and Social Justice. Volume 26, Number 1, February 2018, pp. 19-34(16)
- Hirsch, D. (2017) ' Critical Social Policy. Vol. 38 Issue:6 pp1-20.
- Hirsch, D. (2017) ', Journal of Employee Relations. Vol. 39 Issue:6 pp815-824.